1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for inputting characters in a terminal, and in particular, to an apparatus and method for inputting characters on a touch keyboard of a terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
A personal terminal is a generic term indicating any small-size terminal that can be carried. Personal terminals include the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), the wireless communication terminal, the Moving Pictures Expert Group Layer 3 (MP3) player, the Bluetooth device, and the digital camera. Herein below, the PDA is taken as a personal terminal, by way of example. The PDA has a Central Processing Unit (CPU) being the essential part of a computer, a memory, an Operating System (OS), a variety of OS-based software programs, and peripheral devices and performs the functions of information collection, storage, editing, and search. Recently, the PDA has been developed as a composite device equipped with a portable phone module for being capable of voice call and data communications, such as Internet.
In general, the PDA has a touch screen with a display, such as a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) and a touch panel installed thereon. A user invokes an intended application by touching an icon displayed on the touch screen with his finger or a pointer, or inputs characters by touching a touch keyboard displayed in a predetermined area of the touch screen.
FIG. 1 illustrates a typical keyboard layout for a conventional terminal. Referring to FIG. 1, a touch screen of the terminal includes a display for displaying input characters, and a touch keyboard for inputting the characters. A keyboard layout for a general Personal Computer (PC) is applied to the touch keyboard.
With the application of the conventional keyboard layout to the terminal, the keyboard is downsized due to a limited touch screen space. As individual keys also are downsized, they do not look good and are inconvenient to use. Hence, a user has difficulty in inputting characters and inputs characters at a decreased speed in a conventional input method for the touch screen.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method for inputting characters using a touch keyboard that facilitates character input in a touch screen of a terminal.